By marrying ink and laser in the enterprise, Hewlett-Packard Co. says businesses and managed print services providers will have more flexibility to lower print cost per page and find the right solution for each print business case.

Debuting April 1 will be the HP Officejet Enterprise Color MFP X585 and HP Officejet Enterprise Color X555. Powered by HP PageWide Technology, they’re designed with enterprise-level durability and, with their ink technology, can print at twice the speed and up to half the cost per page of lasers.

Hewlett-Packard Co. has launched a fresh line of printers geared towards the small to mid-sized business (SMB) market, offering up three new colour inkjet printers today. Branded as tools “designed to simplify printing,”

“Never before has an ink-based device been fully capable of meeting the performance requirements that large organizations demand,” said Dion Weisler, executive vice-president of printing and personal systems at HP, in a statement. “CIOs and IT decision makers can be confident that the HP Officejet Enterprise series provides employees exceptional enterprise-grade security, fleet management and mobile printing options along with the fastest speed and lowest total cost of ownership.”

The devices contain the same enterprise functionality as HP’s enterprise LaserJet printers, including the same user interface, and support HP’s LaserJet FutureSmart firmware and HP Open Extensibility Platform, including HP Access Control and HP Capture & Route. Also included in the series is a scan-optimized HP Flow bundle.

Becoming available April 1, the HP Officejet Enterprise Color MFP X585 starts at $1,999 U.S. and the HP X555 starts at US$749.

Jeff Jedras is a technology journalist with IT World Canada and a member of the IT Business team. He began his career in technology journalism in the late 1990s, covering the Ottawa technology sector for Silicon Valley North and the Ottawa Business Journal. He later covered the technology scene in Vancouver before joining IT World Canada in Toronto in 2005, covering enterprise IT for ComputerWorld Canada and the channel for Computer Dealer News. His writing has also appeared in the Vancouver Sun & the Ottawa Citizen.